Peanuts by Charles Schulz for August 23, 2023

kids today would not understand the concept of “pen-pal”

It’s not too bad Charlie Brown

Of course, even texting leaves a lot to be desired. Like good and proper English

The only people today who understand CB’s dilemma have taken calligraphy classes.

This is why he gave up using pens and in later strips had a ‘pencil pal’.

I tried having pen-pals as a kid, didn’t work out. I lived in Kenya and back then, letters could take 3 months to get anywhere (if they weren’t lost).

Most people today will not get the reference to a fountain pen.

I had a “pen” pal in England when I was a pre-teen. We exchanged small reel-reel audio tapes. It didn’t last long.

Is Charlie writing with a fountain pen? How else is a mistake like that possible?

My wife had a pen pal from the Philippines back in the mid to late ‘70s when she was in middle school and early high school. They wrote back and forth for a few years and then the letters gradually stopped as they both got toward the end of high school. Fast forward almost 35 years and my wife got a friend request from her on Facebook back in 2013 or so and said she found my wife’s account by coming across the FB page for my wife’s HS class’ 30th reunion where a lot of the girls listed their maiden names including my wife. Apparently the pen pal married a gentleman from New Zealand, married him and moved down under to Christchurch and started a family. They still chat from time to time.

The internet has indeed made the world smaller, letters used to take upwards of a month via snail mail and now we can used Zoom, Line, WhatsApp, Cisco WebEx, Skype, etc to communicate instantaneously for minimal cost (basically the data you use)…..

At least we can read your penmanship, with some people’s it looks about as legible as a doctor’s prescription…

Kids today wouldn’t be able to read the cartoon, since cursive is no longer taught.

Couldn’t he borrow Snoopy’s typewriter?

When I think of all the hours I spent practicing penmanship under the threat of a ruler-wielding nun back in grad school. Yes we had to learn using a fountain pen.

Then I got to college where, as an engineer, I was taught to print in pencil.

I have an ex-boss whose handwriting was so bad, that I accused him of going to medical school to study penmanship.

Maybe you should just use a pencil, from now on. Either that, or buy some white out.

I wonder when the ballpoint pen was invented… (typing)… 1888?, why are you still using something that should be in a museum?

Nowadays, we’d call penmanship, text-manship. Even the little guys have mobile phones and can text their friends. Facebook, twitter, skype, et al have replaced writing a friend.

Wait til you experience “social media”

I’d probably make the same simtake if I rote with a fountain pen. Thand god we type stuff nw.

Charlie Brown’s penmanship isn’t bad. I have to wonder if the smudge was caused by a faulty pen.

Or writing in cursive.

Come on CB. Use a ball point.

Reminds me of the back-to-school $1 cartridge pen and 10 cartridges sales.

Nowadays, that would be his thumbmanship…

Blot before the dot. (period, full stop)

“penmanship” – now there’s a word I haven’t heard in a long, long time

Remember when almost any pen would leak? That shows how old I am. Now even the cheapest ballpoint doesn’t leak; hardly at all.